


The Nightingale

by Zoya1416



Category: Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
Genre: Double Drabble, Gen, Nicknames, Schoolboy japes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-13 18:51:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12990339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoya1416/pseuds/Zoya1416
Summary: The puny joke followed him forever.





	The Nightingale

It was Arbuthnot who started it. (Freddie and the rest were gone; today that wasn't on his mind as much.) He knew Mama Thames would use his sobriquet, and baffle Peter with it. Peter's curiosity would distract him. Why would you call a man 'The' Nightingale? He wasn't even sure why Mama Thames called him that. He'd been the strongest wizard of his age, and the demi-monde feared hiim, but any of the orisa was much stronger than he was. It had been mocking in the beginning, at Casterbrook, and only grudgingly became respectful as his talents progressed.

It was a puny jape. His tutor had taught him to abbreviate his name one way, and Casterbrook used the other. The school expected 'Thos' on his first assignment, but he hadn't known that and had signed it 'Th.' Freddie had seen it, said 'Oh, you're _The_ Nightingale, are you?' A century later it was still with him.

He waited for Peter to ask but he never did. If Thomas had to live on and on, he was glad he was 'The' anything. It sounded well, and he smiled inside. Arbuthnot was gone but he'd left his joke to four mystified generations.

**Author's Note:**

> Of course Freddie went to Casterbrook. (Squishes time a bit.) He's a financial wizard after all.


End file.
